Blogging Metaphor: Blogging is like Exercise

Liz Strauss has issued a Blogging Metaphor challenge on her blog.  Essential Keystrokes has joined the call with a great analogy on her blog as has Word Sell.

These two blogs use blogging as food metaphors while mine talks to the other side of the coin… exercise.

Yesterday, during a conversation with a client, she commented, "You make it sound like work!" 

My response was, "I’m assuming that if you had an innate love of blogging, you would already be doing it and I wouldn’t have had to work so hard and so long getting you to this point."  (This client’s blog was launched 6 weeks ago and we were working on her very first post.)

There are people who exercise just for the love of moving their bodies.  I am not one of these people.  I exercise because I LOVE what it does for my mind and body.

When I bring up blogging with a client or potential client, the first objection I seem to get is "I don’t have time to blog."  My response is "OF COURSE YOU DON’T! But do you have time to exercise?" 

Before I moved to the eastern coast of Florida two years ago, I was living in a home in the Midwest on almost an acre of land, with a huge fenced back yard.  In those days, exercising my dogs meant opening the back door and allowing them to run until they had their fill, when they would appear on the back patio to come back inside and lie at my feet.  It was great cardiovascular for the dogs, but not for me.  (By the way, during this time of my life, I complained that I didn’t have "time" to exercise regularly.)

Then, my husband’s job relocated us to the densely populated Florida southeastern coast and we found ourselved living on a postage stamp sized lot.  With two active dogs who needed exercise to be polite house guests (and no opportunity for them to live outside), I had to begin carving out 40-60 minutes a day to walk them.

While I’d like to say that after two months of walking, I saw incredible changes in my body… I can’t.  However, after about 18 months of walking (16 months beyond the point where walking was "fun"), I had an interesting experience.  I slipped on my yoga pants (which I had purchased years ago during a short lived yoga phase) and an oversized t-shirt to go on our walk.  I was grateful for the oversized t-shirt, because about half way through the walk, my pants literally fell down.  Had it not been for my shirt, I would have given our neighbors quite a show!

My twice daily walks were creating gradual changes in my body…. ones I didn’t recognize.  If I had jumped on the scale after every walk, I would have been disappointed in my progress.  However, I was obviously making changes in my shape….changes that were much more evident that the lower number on the scale.

And THAT is how blogging is like exercising….

Because you won’t find yourself a raging success after one blog post… or two, or even three blog posts.  But if you keep blogging, and keep posting, eventually you’ll build a body of content…. a body of content that potential clients can peruse.  As you gradually build your content, and as you study what successful bloggers have to say about the art and science of blogging…. you’ll find you’re building links and connections…. and before you know it, your blog will have a respectable Page Rank with Google….and you’ll find that new clients are mentioning your blog entries in their conversations with you.

Why is this important?  Because clients need to get to know you before they contract to hire you.  You need to build trust and the best way to begin building that trust is to communicate REGULARLY.  Blogging is a GREAT way to achieve that level of communication. 

I guess I’ve chosen exercise because I don’t really enjoy walking… but I certainly enjoy the benefits of a regular walking regime.  Many of my clients are NOT frustrated writers… they aren’t hungry for the adoration of a wildly successful blog, they just want a way to attract new clients to their practice.

IMHO, blogging is that essential key.  It’s a boot strapping entrepreneur’s best friend.  It’s by far the best way to launch a web site that is heavy on content… content visitors need to make a decision whether or not to engage the services of the blog site owner.

By the way, I’m enjoying blogging more now that my original blog is doing so well.  It’s already attained a PR4 in just under a year from it’s launch date.